September 26, 2012

I Deplore This False, Ego-Centric Equivalence

I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video. And
the answer is enshrined in our laws: Our Constitution protects the right
to practice free speech.

Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense. Like
me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban
blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs. As President of our country
and Commander-in-Chief of our military, I accept that people are going
to call me awful things every day -- (laughter) -- and I will always
defend their right to do so.

People criticizing the prophet of a great religion, people criticizing Obama - it's all the same, yes? Obama can endure being mocked, so why can't these foks just get over it when someone mocks their religion?

For heaven's sake, very few of us still equate Obama with a prophet. Yes, there are Muslims who might benefit from having a thicker skin, but only a narcissist like Obama could offer his own mighty forebearance as an analogy and counterexample.

And how great is his forebearance, anyway? I don't recall much hue and cry about "Baracka Flacka Flames as Head of State", but how might the President react to a video depicting Michelle as, I don't know, a crack whore, or a depiction of Sasha and Malia as street hookers? I hope never to see such trash, but I would also hope that Obama's response would beTrumanesque.

Well, less abstractly - the US Supreme Court has upheld laws against cross-burning with the intent of racial intimidation, and rightly so. Even US free speech laws consider some types of expression as beyond the bounds of acceptance. That doesn't mean it would be acceptable for a private citizen to assault a cross-burner, but it would be acceptable for the police to arrest him.

The US does not have laws against blasphemy, but that is partly due to the differences in our history. For another example, spray-painting a swastika can be a hate crime in this country - would Obama like to listen to a lecture from an Indian leader about the religious tradition of that symbol in his country? I hope not.

Comments

I haven't listened to Obama give an entire speech in years. I read them online. Every speech has the same cadence, the same tone, the same...same. I think he is a clone. The real Obama is out playing golf somewhere.

TM's link about spray painting swastikas leads to a BDN story about the synagogues in Bangor being spray painted with swastikas.Three teenagers were charged and released.The names aren't being released because they are juveniles.They should be paraded down the street,their parents beside them,because one of the teens was re-arrested at 2:45AM today for another spay painting incident. So,your idiot teen is arrested yesterday and he's out on the streets in the middle of the night.Seventeen year olds should be held accountable,prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So should the parents.Maine's AG will determine if this qualifies as a hate crime.

--Well, less abstractly - the US Supreme Court has upheld laws against cross-burning with the intent of racial intimidation, and rightly so. Even US free speech laws consider some types of expression as beyond the bounds of acceptance.--

A ban on cross burning per se was held to be unconstitutional. Cross burning with the intent to intimidate was viewed as any other form of illegal threat; more a form of criminal conduct than expression or speech.
There is nothing threatening in the video in question and therefore it bears no resemblance to cross burning with the intent to intimidate.

--The US does not have laws against blasphemy, but that is partly due to the differences in our history.--

If by "history" Tom is referring to Jesus's invocation to "love thy enemies" as opposed to Mohammad's "slay the infidels wherever you find them" then I agree.
Any subsequent history is based largely on both original statements, IMO.

I don't get what you are telling me. If Obama takes PA it would seem to me that he would pull the D over the finish line with him. No? Maybe the polls in PA aren't as good for the Big O as some would like us to believe?

"The ironic headlines include “Tunisia – all is well,” “Morocco – all is well,” “Egypt – all is well” and “Libya – all is well,” following by “Mali – all is going very well.” Others include “Prudence is the mother of safety” and “Do you know how to plant cabbages?”"

"Maybe the polls in PA aren't as good for the Big O as some would like us to believe?"

Sue,

Sorry for my lack of clarity. Sestak's record is actually better than Casey's and he lost. Smith is running hard and counting on the GOP GOTV effort to carry him over the line. Casey is polling right on the edge of defeat, although he has a definite lead.

The Ras Massachusetts poll today actually speaks more to your observation regarding the possibility current MFM/Uni polls are hiding more than they disclose. Obama is running 7 points (11%) below his 2008 number in a Deep Blue Hell yet the MFM/Uni pollsters would have us believe it's 2008 all over again.

Another polling factor militating against 2012 = 2008 is polling in House races. The GOP flipped five House seats in Pennsylvania in 2010. They all look like solid holds at this point and PA-12 (Dem held) is once again a toss up.

There is a similar situation in New York wrt House seats and I find it extraordinarily difficult to believe the Dems are actually coming back to 2008 levels if there isn't any movement in Blue Hells.

Taranto, skices and dices this bullcarp today:"But now let's look at the "slander" statement in its fuller context: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims and Shiite pilgrims."

There are two problems with this statement. The first is that, after condemning that stupid video for the umpteenth time in the past two weeks, Obama lists a bunch of things that others "must" condemn--but he doesn't directly condemn any of them himself. Not only is his demand for the condemnation of anti-Christian speech, destruction of churches, Holocaust denial, and incitement of intra-Islamic sectarian violence likely to go unheeded, but he doesn't even heed it himself. (Has he ever? Maybe, but certainly not with the same vigor that he has shown in the case of the video.)

Second, the list is at best intellectually incoherent, at worst invidiously relativistic."

Okay, that makes more sense. If Romney is winning Rs and Is, and Obama is only winning his base, they are asking us to believe that more democrats are going to vote than Rs & Is in a year when democratic registration is down.

President 404 is just a dope. I'll say whatever I want about Mohammed. I don't consider him a good man much less a prophet. I have zero, zip, nada respect for the religion/political system of Islam - absolutely none.

"A ruling handed down on September 13th by the D.C. District Federal Court has finally made clear what many have known for years–that the Obama Administration’s Iran policy was initiated and advanced by a group with illicit, hidden ties to the Iranian Regime and financed by the U.S./Israel- hating George Soros."

Not surprising, since Jeremiah Wright, served as an 'agent of influence' with Cuba and Libya, the former with a DGI link, I believe it was either
Kurtz or Klein, who picked up on that.

In the previous administration, Strobe Talbott, got a leg up, in part do to KGB agents Victor Louis, re the Khruschev memoir and Sergei Tretyakov
later on, it was that sort of 'received wisdom' which looked down on Richard Pipes, and General Rowny, that he showcased in his writings.

Hmmm...is Damon claiming all those real world fraudster environmentalists were actually in the pay of the oil companies?
If so they might have a case for defamation if they hadn't already defamed themselves by committing fraud to indict fracking in the first place.

Members of Congress, frustrated over an apparently light-on-details intelligence briefing last week and the initial insistence by officials that the attack was linked to anger over an anti-Islam film, fired off a round of letters this week seeking clear answers. Mitt Romney, after initially laying low over the changing Libya narrative, also has started to hammer the president over the issue.

Republicans now are openly suggesting that the administration may have covered up details of the attack for political purposes.

"We are getting close to an election, and all I can think of is they're just trying to keep the facts unknown until after the election," Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told Fox News on Wednesday. "The way they're handling this is so incompetent."

Tom Bethell has always aptly compared the left to a hive of bees.
Now in the age of the cult of Barry comes word of zombie bees spreading outward from a hotbed of zombies in the Bay Area of California, with cells in Washington, New York and Minnesota.
Maybe the end is nigh.

Think about it;
On the same day that our president is at the UN continuing his whine about that Mohammad video the big cheese in Libya who Barry helped install says the video had zero to do with our murdered ambassador and the other killings.
Can we trade? Magarief straight across for Barry; no draft picks, no other considerations. At least he admits he has the interests of a country besides the US at heart.

Pagar, I've come to the conclusion that nothing will affect them. I simply can't imagine a more catastrophic failure of a president--and yet half the country approves of what he's done.

I don't have my license, Jane. The "continuing education" requirements in CA are pretty onerous, but more important I wasn't willing to subscribe to and read the various journals and advance sheets necessary to stay current as a practitioner. For the past fifteen years I have been able to read only laboriously.

WE have no CLE requirements in MA. Last year when I was renewing my malpractice INS, they asked if I had taken any CLE courses because for the first time it affected the premium. I hadn't. They encouraged me to lie. I didn't.

Does CA have an inactive status for law licenses?
They do for dental hygiene as my wife hasn't practiced ever since our daughter was born 20 years ago but she still has her license although it is inactive without any of the CE requirements.

Jane: "Seems to me if Obama gets reelected, there may quickly be grounds for impeachment."

Jane if we reelect this guy in the face of all that we know, then there is zero chance we have the collective backbone or the political will to do any such thing. While Sarah's pal Romney falls over himself saying nice things about Obama ("Oh he did not raise taxes, that is true" etc), we are circling the toilet and are about to be flushed away.

Dick Morris talks about the convention surge, and guess what he too finds the balloon to be leaking air:

In my own polling, I found a lurch to the Democrats right after their convention, but subsequent research indicates that it has since petered out. Indeed, when one compares party identification in the August and September polls of this year in swing states, the Democratic Party identification is flat while the ranks of Republicans rose by an average of two points per state.

Hey Captain...that lady is something. Breaking the law by spray painting stuff & then appealing to the law so she won't get hauled away. Agree too that it's mostly pro Israel...Newsbusters has a lousy headline.

"DAVIS, California (Reuters) - University officials in California have agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit over a pepper-spraying incident last year that came to symbolize law enforcement aggression against anti-Wall Street protesters, attorneys said on Wednesday.

Video of the confrontation, which showed seated student protesters being pepper-sprayed by campus police at the University of California campus at Davis, was replayed widely on television and the Internet, sparking outrage among faculty and activists.

Under the terms of the settlement filed in court on Wednesday, each of the 21 students and recent graduates from the campus who sued University of California regents over the November 2011 incident will get $30,000 and a personal apology from UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

Boy, when you guys said to ignore Fox News I should have listened. Everyone is negative on the panel and keeps insisting that Obama is surging in the swing states. It's like the opposite of what we post here. I shall not watch until debate night which is a week away. Ican't bear the thought of another Obama term. I may just have to move to Ireland.

maryrose: I am at work and cannot watch on TV, so instead I headed over to the extended panel on the web. I only lasted 5 minutes before I had to turn it off.

Both Steve Hayes and Bret were close to being in meltdown mode. (The two liberal blondes, AB and Kirsten smilingly just egged them on. I think the race is a lot nearer and dearer to some of our pundits and anchors than they dare let on (especially if they are the least bit conservative). I find the "fear" of Romney losing is sending many of them to the brink - if only he'd do this, or had done that, or will do such and such! They all need to get a grip!

Obama using 47% comment in his stump speech today but only getting a tepid response from the crowd in Bowling Grenn, Ohio. BGSU is where I got my masters degree in guidance and counseling. It is Wood County,previously farm country about 30 minutes from the big city Toledo. It looked like a small crowd and not a lot of university students. This is where Romney can win Ohio. Tomorrow I will be phone banking again.

It's just after 9 AM in Japan. Over here the big political news on the local channels is the dispute with China. Apparently the Japanese gave a very firm speech at the UN about who owns the disputed islands and that is being shown on many of the morning news channels.

I've got the Washington Nationals versus Philly's on one channel (Kurt Suzuki at bat), and on another channel just had the first pitch of the Texas-Oakland game. I think they are both live, but if not please don't tell me who wins.

I believe everyone needs to look for the obvious telltales which would confirm a swing state blowout. Is the DCCC bumping ad buys for House races in swing states? Has the DCCC expanded its target list in swing states? How are the Tea Party first term incumbents doing in swing states? How many first termers are in danger in Ohio or Virginia or Florida or Wisconsin? The DCCC netted 21 seats in 2008 due to that D+7 electorate. They then lost 63 seats in 2010, so shouldn't we be looking for them to net 80 or so if the D+7 fantasy were real?

I'm fine with ripping polls but we need to consider the fact there is NO CONFIRMATION of the propaganda polling in the ancillary House races.

Having an oligarch bucket of sludge as the standard bearer makes optimism close to impossible - until one considers the Kendonesian commie buck of sludge sitting in the Oval Office. This may be a race between two spavined mules but it's still a race.

I was thinking about that Stern video from the other day. I think I've lived a charmed life because I can honestly say I've never known anyone so incredibly dumb. But, I had an epiphany as I now have my question answered as to who keeps reelecting Barbara "Dumber than a box of rocks, call me Senator" Boxer. It all makes sense now. And what else makes sense is how Barack Obama was led to believe he's always the smartest humanoid in the room.

Finally, with Obama below 50% of the vote in most swing states, he is hitting up against a glass ceiling in the high 40s. He can’t get past it except in heavily Democratic states like New York or California. The first time Obama breaks 50 will not be on Election Day. Either he consistently polls above 50% of the vote or he won’t ever get there in the actual vote.

I think that rings very true. They've shot everything they've got at this point, and Obama is still under 50%.

If you're going to believe the polls released from CBS/New York Times this morning -- you know, the polls the media's currently using to beat Romney senseless and to depress Republican enthusiasm, you have to believe that the turnout advantage for Democrats over Republicans will blow away every previous record and common sense.

If you're watching, it is enjoyable to listen to Japanese Baseball announcers exclaim their reactions at such lousy play this first Inning by your Texas Center fielder. Don't know what they are actually saying, but the disapproval comes through strong, especially since as Darvish fans they are pulling so hard for Texas. Personally I'm enjoying it:)